When a large multinational corporation sues an individual who cannot possibly have the financial resources to fight back for the express purpose to "make an example of him/her" but is hoping to intimidate the public into being sheep.
This is a tactic used recently by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to stop song sharing on {P2P} sites such as {kazaa} but in reality is trying to control the definition of "copyright" by lobbying congress to abide by the rules they set and then sue individual persons to enforce their rules.

The RIAA recently won a lawsuit against a Native American woman on a reservation to the tune of $220,000 for 24 songs they allege she shared on Kazaa. They did not have to prove that she actually shared the files, they prove that she intended to share them.
Satisfied, the lawyers then said "this should send a message to the public."
This was a clear cut case of bully-suing.